School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Dec 9;287(1940):20202454. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2454.
Infectious diseases, including transmissible cancers, can have a broad range of impacts on host behaviour, particularly in the latter stages of disease progression. However, the difficulty of early diagnoses makes the study of behavioural influences of disease in wild animals a challenging task. Tasmanian devils () are affected by a transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), in which tumours are externally visible as they progress. Using telemetry and mark-recapture datasets, we quantify the impacts of cancer progression on the behaviour of wild devils by assessing how interaction patterns within the social network of a population change with increasing tumour load. The progression of DFTD negatively influences devils' likelihood of interaction within their network. Infected devils were more active within their network late in the mating season, a pattern with repercussions for DFTD transmission. Our study provides a rare opportunity to quantify and understand the behavioural feedbacks of disease in wildlife and how they may affect transmission and population dynamics in general.
传染病，包括传染性癌症，可能对宿主的行为产生广泛的影响，特别是在疾病进展的后期。然而，由于早期诊断的困难，研究野生动物疾病对行为的影响是一项具有挑战性的任务。袋獾（）患有传染性癌症，即袋獾面部肿瘤疾病（DFTD），随着肿瘤的发展，肿瘤在外部是可见的。我们使用遥测和标记-重捕数据集，通过评估随着肿瘤负荷的增加，群体社会网络中的相互作用模式如何变化，来量化癌症进展对野生袋獾行为的影响。DFTD 的进展降低了感染袋獾在其网络中相互作用的可能性。在交配季节后期，患有感染的袋獾在其网络内的活动更加频繁，这种模式对 DFTD 的传播有影响。我们的研究提供了一个罕见的机会来量化和理解野生动物疾病的行为反馈，以及它们如何影响一般的传播和种群动态。
